French press reported extensively on Mr. Hollande's visit to Vietnam.

On September 6, French newspapers reported extensively on the state visit of French President Francois Hollande to Vietnam and affirmed that the focus of the visit is to promote economic and trade cooperation between France and Vietnam.

French President Francois Hollande takes a walking tour of Hanoi's Old Quarter. (Photo: Pham Kien/VNA)

The daily newspaper Le Monde (World) carried an article by special envoy Cédric Pietralunga saying that many important economic contracts were signed during the visit. This is the first visit to Vietnam by a French president since former President Jacques Chirac in 2004.

As soon as he arrived in Hanoi on September 6, President Hollande and Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang witnessed the signing of two important contracts and a memorandum of understanding between aircraft manufacturer Airbus and many Vietnamese airlines.

Specifically, JetStar Pacific, a low-cost airline under the national airline Vietnam Airlines, and Australian airline Qantas signed a contract to purchase 10 Airbus A320 aircraft worth up to 1 billion USD.

Similarly, Vietjet Air has signed a contract to buy 20 Airbus A321 aircraft in different versions. Vietnam Airlines, a regular customer of Airbus, has signed a Letter of Intent to buy 10 Airbus A350 aircraft. If this deal is implemented, the value of the order could reach more than 3 billion USD. According to Mr. Fabrice Brégier, CEO of Airbus Group, the total value of contracts and agreements is up to 6.5 billion USD.

The article also said that many memorandums of understanding were signed on this occasion, including the Memorandum of Understanding between Vinci Concessions Group and Vietnam Expressway Corporation, and the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the space sector between the French National Center for Space Studies (CNES) and the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology.

With a growth rate of 6.7% in 2015, Vietnam is one of the most dynamic economies in Southeast Asia. Since 1990, Vietnam's per capita GDP has tripled. French exports to Vietnam exceeded $1.4 billion for the first time last year, up 85.3% from $764 million the previous year. However, France's trade deficit remains high, reaching 2.7 billion euros in 2015, mainly due to France's purchases of Vietnamese phones and textiles.

Sharing the same view with Le Monde, Le Point emphasized that the purpose of the visit is to promote economic cooperation with Vietnam in particular and the Southeast Asian region in general, where growth is particularly high, as well as to increase exchanges in the cultural and Francophone fields.

Meanwhile, under the headline "President Hollande stops in Vietnam - a self-reliant, strong country," Les Echos newspaper affirmed that Hanoi has become a favorite destination for international investors, so this is the stopover chosen by the French President after attending the G20 Summit in Hangzhou (China).

According to the article, on the evening of September 5, President Hollande began a 48-hour visit to Vietnam - a dynamic country with 90 million people. Vietnam is also located in the only region where many countries have strong export growth at the same time as China and the US, have signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) and are carrying out ratification procedures.

The article also said that Vietnam has become a major export hub for multinational corporations around the world, especially in the textile and electronics sectors. More than one in three Samsung Galaxy smartphones produced worldwide originates from Vietnam. According to the article, nearly 300 French companies have implemented investment projects in Vietnam in the fields of tourism, transportation, infrastructure, retail distribution and healthcare.

France is the 17th largest supplier of goods to Vietnam and imports from Vietnam account for less than 1% of the market share in France./.

According to Vietnamplus